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.Abraham JUincoln. 



By 



William "©• Wilson. 



A Cnilitavy Telegfapkev In Utav Time. 



A GLIMPSE 



The Wed States Military Telegraph Corps 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

BY 

V 
WILLIAM B. WILSON, 

A MILITARY TELEGRAPHER IN WAR TIME. 



READ BEFORE THE 




UNITED SERVICE CLUB OF PHILADELPHIA 

[by bequest], 
January 16, 1889. 



HOLMESBURG, PHILADELPHIA. 



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MEYERS PRINTING AND PUBLISHING HOUSE, HARRISBUBG. 



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[Entered for copyright.] 



Td the mEmnry nf my camrades who fell during the 
great Civil War, sacriUcEs to patriotic duty, well per- 
farmed, this paper is lovingly dedicated by 

THE nUTHOR. 



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(4 



A GLIMPSE 



The Uoited States Military Telegrapli Corps. 



The golden dream of empire, which had haunted the 
waking and sleeping moments of the cultivated aristocratic 
ruling class of the Gulf States, and of the land barons of 
South Carolina and Georgia, aided and abetted by imprac- 
ticable legislation and fanatical expressions of latitudi- 
narian doctrines of government by agitators tliroughout 
the Northern States, had at last brought about that most 
deplorable of all conflicts — civil war. It was a serious 
hour for the principles of self-government by the people 
as represented by the Constitution of the great American 
Eepublic. 

Sumter had been fired upon, and the emblem of our na-. 
tionality was lowered at the demand of revolting citizens. 

In this crisis. President Lincoln called upon the various 
States for 75,000 men to restore the authority of the Na- 
tional Government. 

In response to that call, tlie men, who in the preceding 
election had voted in the North for Lincoln, for Brecken- 

(5) 



6 A Olimpse of the 



ridge, for Douglas and for Bell, with a fair number of 
Union-loving men from the South, rushed forward, as with 
a common impulse, shoulder to shoulder, with a patriotic 
impetus inborn of love for and devotion to country. 

I can yet hear the swish of the waves of patriotism as 
they broke upon the shores of Rebellion. 

No persons rushed with more patriotic fervor to the 
field of Mars than did the boys of the telegraph. It was 
my fortune to be made manager of the military telegraph 
ofhce in the War Department early in the struggle, and it 
is, therefore, with confidence I speak of the organization 
and efficiency of the Military Telegraph Corps of the 
United States Army. 

^ On the 27th of April, 1861, on the order of Simon 
■ Cameron, then Secretary of War, David Strouse, Homer 
Bates, Samuel Brown and Richard O'Brien, four of the 
best and most reliable operators on the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road Company's telegraph line, arrived in Washington and 
formed, under Thomas A. Scott, of Philadelphia, the germ 
ont of which grew the best disciplined, the most wonder- 
fully accurate, reliable and intelligent army telegraph corps 
ever known to the world. The quartette was rapidly fol- 
lowed by others, until, throughout the length and breadth 
of the army, over twelve hundred young men enrolled 
themselves in the corps, and rendered such services as had 
never before been performed for any government. Their 
ages ranged from sixteen to twenty-two — boys in years, 



United States Military Telegraph Corps. 



bojs in stature, but giants in loyalty, and giants in the 
amount of work they performed for their country. / 

A better- natured, more intelligent-looking or harder- 
working band of young men did not exist in the army 
They were ready and willing to go anywhere at a mo- 
ment's notice, and, if necessary, to work day and night 
without rest uncomplainingly. Oft times they were sent 
where the sky was the only protecting roof over their 
heads, a tree stump their only office, and the ground their 
downy couch. Provisioned with a handful of hard bread, 
a canteen of water, pipe, tobacco-pouch and matches, they 
would open and work an office at the picket line, in order to 
keep the commanding general in instantaneous communi- 
cation with his most advanced forces, or to herald the first 
approach of the enemy. When retreat became necessary 
it was their place to remain behind and to announce that 
the rear guard had passed the danger line between it and 
the pursuing foe. 

All the movements of the army, all the confidence of 
the commanders were entrusted to these boys, and yet not 
one was ever known to betray that knowledge and confi- 
dence in the most remote degree. 

/ The military telegraph eventually assumed, under Gen- 
eral Eckert, colossal proportions, its ramifications extend- 
ing to every portion of the Union where a Union soldier 
could be found. Its delicate, yet potent, power was felt 
and appreciated by every department of the Government. 



A Glimpse of the 



The system, as perfected, was elaborate and complete in 
all its details — the boys constructed and operated during 
the war, within the lines of the army, 15,389 miles of 
telegraph, and transmitted over six millions of military 
telegrams. Of the latter, a large proportion were in the 
secret cipher of the Grovernment, the keys of which were 
solely in the possession of the operators. 

The boys didn't plan campaigns or fight battles, but 
amidst the fiercest roar of conflict they were to be found 
coolly advising the commanding general of the battle's 
progress. 

When the armv, in all its grand divisions, was in mo- 
tion they were to be found in the advance, in the rear, on 
the right, left and center — wherever duty was to be per- 
formed ; and when the army was in repose a thousand 
general officers had them at their elbows. 

The corps was the veiy nerves of the army dui'ing the 
wai', and was so considered by all those that came in con- 
tact witli it, and yet it was not, and has not been, recog- 
nized as an integral part of that army. 

Its services were great; its sacrifices many. Beginning 
at Yorktown, where poor Lathrop was murdered by one 
of Magruder's buried torpedoes, from East to West and 
North to South, as our grand armies marched and fought, 
until Rebellion's knell was sounded at Appomattox, al- 
most every field, almost every march numbered one of the 
telegraph bo^^s among the fallen 



United States Militarij Telegraph Corps, 9 



A huudred nameless graves throughout the battle-fields 
of the Union attest their devotion unto death to the sub- 
Inne cause in whicli they were engaged, and 3-et the Gov- 
ernment they loved and hibored for never as much as 
thanked them for their services. It is a sad reflection, 
when old memories come back, that of the twelve hundred 
bojs composing that corps there are not three hundred left. 
Where are the remainder? Those that did not lay down 
their lives in action succumbed shortly after the war from 
wounds, and fi'om the effects of exposures and imprison- 
ments. 

Here let me say of the dead : Not a funeral note was 
sounded as they passed into the earth ; not a flower is cast 
upon their mounds as Memorial Day comes around. 

And of the survivors: Not a door swings upon its 
hinges to welcome them into any of the vai-ious organiza- 
tions of the loyal men who fought the battles of the Union, 
and to-night, in this presence, I stand alone, the one ex- 
ception, where one of the corps has been invited to par- 
ticipate in any of the ceremonies or entertainments of a 
society formed of persons who served in the army or navy 
of the United States during the great Rebellion. 

A few of the officers were commissioned, and, in con- 
sequence, are borne upon the rolls of honor, but the rank 
and file, who performed the principal duties, although 
obliged to take an oath of allegiance and of secrecy, not 
being technicallv sworn into the service, were disbanded 



10 A Glimpse of 

without a word of thanks or a scrap of paper showing that 
they had honorably discharged their trying duties. 

Secretary of War Stanton said, in one of liis reports to 
Congress: "The military telegraph has been of inestima- 
ble value to the seryice, and no corps has surpassed it." 

Since the war, Congress has been appealed to to right 
the wrongs and enroll the corps, but, notwithstanding 
Gi-ant, McClellan, Hancock, Sherman, Sheridan, Burnsides, 
Warren, Rosecranz, Sanborn, Porter, Smith and others 
have urged that the services of the corps were invaluable, 
and its members shamefully treated, and General Logan 
and J. Donald Cameron exerted their utmost endeavors, 
from their seats in the United States Senate, to have jus- 
tice done, the wrong remains unrighted. 

'Twas an hour fraught with gloom, when the maddened 
bullet, speeding from the murderer's weapon, laid low the 
head of that mighty chieftain, who was the one, had life 
been spared him, tliat would have seen justice done the 
corps. But the corps, like humanity in general, suffered 
when Aliraham Lincohi died. 

It was through my connection with the corps that I be- 
came acquainted with Mr. Lincoln, and it is for that reason 
I have grouped a glimpse of him with a glimpse of it. 



Abraham Linroln. 11 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



The multitude of sketches that have been written on the 
life, character and public services of Ahi-ahani Lincoln 
make nie hesitate in speaking of the impressions of him 
that were left on my mind by daily contact with him dur- 
ing the lirst year of his administration of the presidency. 
This hesitation is rather increased than diminished when 
I consider that his fulsome eulogists, under the garb of 
confidential friends, have so surrounded his memory with 
a halo of deity that to speak of him as I saw him may be 
looked upon as a misrepresentation. The tragedy of his 
death, and the tight hold he had upon the popular heart 
at that time created the opportunity for opening the flood- 
gates of flattery, which, to a great extent, have obscured the 
true character of the man. 

I first saw him in Harrisburg, on an evening in Feb- 
ruary, 1861, as he emerged from the side door of the Jones 
House, in the judicious act of flanking any hostile move- 
ment that might be developed by the threatening attitude 
of Baltimore as he proceeded to Washington and his fate. 
At that time, although conceding to him honesty of inten- 
tion, I did not accept him as an oracle. My political edu- 
cation had been in the strict construction school, and I had 



12 A Glhnpse. of 

only then returned from Soutli Carolina to place myself 
on the side of the Union. Knowing the earnestness and 
intensity of the feeling in the South. I looked upon his 
speeches from the text of "nobody hurt" as belittling the 
gravity of the situation. Towards the close of April, 1861, 
however, I was called to Washington as military tele- 
grapher in the Department of War, and in that capacity 
came in contact with Mr. Lincoln many times dailv, and 
often late at nights. He was always on terms of easy fa- 
miliarity with the operators, and it was through that fa- 
miliarity that my acquaintance with him was fonned. 

I soon saw a man before me with a kind heart and char- 
itable disposition, who had a duty to perform that he in- 
tended performing with a conscientious exactitude. In 
the many telegrams he indited or dictated, and in the con- 
versations he had with Secretary of State Seward, who 
almost invariably accompanied him to the war telegraph 
office, he displayed a wonderful knowledge of the country, 
its resources and requirements, as well as an intuition of 
the needs and wants of the people. 

He was entirely unselfish, and in his exalted position 
did not seem to think of hin:iself for himself. The great 
cause of perpetuating the Government entrusted to his 
care seemed to absorb his whole time and thought. When 
he acted it was from a sense of duty, and whatever the 
effect such action might have upon himself I don't think 
influenced him pro or con. 



Abraham Lincoln. 13 



There was nothing ornamental in or about him, and to 
depict him in the ornamental light is to detract from his 
true greatness, which consisted of his being a true repre- 
sentative of a great people and a great principle of gov- 
ernment. 

Mr. Lincoln's shining characteristic was his extreme 
simplicity. He thoroughly recognized the true import of 
his position to be the serving of the people, and he tried 
to so conduct the administration of affairs that whoever 
looked upon him in the presidential chair should see re- 
flected the power, the intelligence, the charity, the great- 
ness of a great Nation. Ilis acts were all studied in the 
school of duty, and were, to the extent of his information, 
the expressions of the national will. This was nowhere 
more notable than in the issuing the Emancipation Proc- 
lamation. To make him a god of freedom on account of 
his promulgating that paper which released the country 
from the curse of slavery is to give him attributes he never 
claimed, and to imply motives he would have spurned. 

The Emancipation Proclamation was not issued solely 
in the cause of freedom, or solely to liberate the slaves, for 
Mr. Lincoln and the political party which had elevated him 
to the presidential office were committed to the strange 
doctrine that although slavery was an evil not to be ex- 
tended yet it was to be tolerated and protected because of 
its existence. He announced most earnestly in his inau- 
gural address that he had no purpose to interfere, directly 



14 A GlimjJse of 

or iDclirect]}', with the institution of slavery in the States 
where it existed. That he did not depart from that policy 
until he was compelled by the stern necessities of war and 
the readiness of the people for such departure, is a matter 
of historical fact. 'Tis true he entertained emancipation 
views, but they were based upon emancipation by com-' 
pensation, attended by colonization, that was to be reached 
through independent State action. When General John 
Cochrane, of New York, in the fall of 1861. suggested 
and advocated the arming of the slaves, and Simon Cam- 
eron pressed for the same object in Cabinet councils, both 
knowing that it was a practical emancipation measure, and 
that the slave, by its adoption, would become his own 
emancipator, Mr. Lincoln did not second them in their 
efforts because he did not think it the will of the people. 
He declared his purpose to be the e:^ecution of the laws 
and the maintaining the union of the States inviolate. But 
as the war of the Eebellion drew on apace, larger and 
larger in its proportions, and fiercer and fiercer in its ani- 
mosities, with variable results to the contending parties, 
the emancipation of the slaves became an absolute military 
necessity, and with that necessity came the Emancipation 
Proclamation. Its origin and standing rests nowhere else. 
The slaves were declared free, not because slavery was 
wrong, but for the same reason that the enemy's horses, 
cattle, houses, wagons and lands were taken from him — to 
cripple him in his resources. 



Abraham Lincoln. 15 



'Twas duty to the country, not justice to the slave, aud 
Abraham Lincohi claimed no other credit. 

He was not a god, and it is unseemly sacrilege to paint 
liim in colors wherein he might be mistaken for such. He 
was a man, with all the attributes that enter into manhood. 
He had all the tastes, ambitions, affections, longings and 
passions of other men, but he had them under a complete 
control, so that they might be used for the benefit of com- 
mon humanity, and not alone for self-gratification. 

There was nothing false about him, for while he might 
curtain his thoughts and intentions as a matter of tempo- 
rary policy, it was not for the purpose of deception, but 
simply to guard against the plucking of unripe fruit. 

'Twas not into ancestors' graves that Abraham Lincoln 
dug for the clothes that were to clothe him in the garb of 
manhood. He studied the laws of his Creator to find the 
material from which to shape them, and he found it. 

Despoiled of his titles, honor and power, and introduced 
solely as the homely, honest man he was, into that Ameri- 
can society that seeks the tracery of a ducal coronet on its 
escutcheon, and that obtains its principal sustenance from 
the phosphorescent light emanating from the bones of long 
buried ancestors, he would have been thrust out as an un- 
welcome guest. 

Whilst he was kind and tolerant to those of different 
opinions from his, and freely communicated with all those 
with whom he came in contact, yet he impressed me with 



16 A Glimpse of 

being a man who had but one confidant, and that confi- 
dant himself. 

Before coming to a conclusion, I will narrate some an- 
ecdotes of the man that came under mj personal observa- 
tion : 

lu the fall of 1861 fires in Washington City were of fre- 
quent occurrence, without any organized adequate means 
for rapidly extinguishing them being in existence there. 
This condition of affairs was a source of so much anxiety 
to the country at large that no sooner was a Washington 
fire announced in the newspapers of the principal cities 
than the mails would teem with patriotic offers to the 
President, from all sections, for the formation of fire bri- 
gades, as a component part of the army, for the protection 
of the Capital. This was one of the many great annoy- 
ances of irrelevant subjects thrust upon the President in 
those trying times, but he bore it all as a part of the re- 
sponsibilities resting upon him : yet at last he was com- 
pelled to rebuke it from sheer lack of time to give it any 
attention. One night the Washington Infirmary burned 
down, and, as customaiy after such a disaster, the next 
day brought the President the usual complement of offers 
for fire engines and firemen. Philadelphia's patriotism, 
true to its traditions, could not await the slow progress of 
the mail, but sent forward a committee of citizens to urge 
upon the President the acceptance of a fully equipped fire 
brigade for Washington. On their arrival at the White 



Abraham Lincoln. 17 



House thev were duly ushered into the Executive Cham- 
ber and courteously and blandly received by Mr. Lincoln. 
Eloquently did they urge the cause of their mission, but 
valuable time was being wasted, and Mr. Lincoln was 
forced to bring the conference to a close, which he did by 
interrupting one of the committee in the midst of a grand 
and to-be-clinching oratorical effort, by gravely saying, and 
as if he had just awakened to the true import of the visit, 
"Ah ! \"es, gentlemen, but it is a mistake to suppose that 
I am at the head of the fire department of Washington. 
I am simply the President of the United States." The 
quiet irony had its proper effect, and the committee de- 
parted. 

The personal familiarity of Mr. Lincoln, shown in his 
intercourse with the war telegraphers already spoken of, 
cannot be better illustrated than by relating a few personal 
encounters with him. 

September 26, 1861, was an appointed day for humilia- 
tion, fasting and prayer, and was generall}- observed 
throughout the North. We operators on the military 
telegraph were extra vigilant at our posts ; our boy George 
was engaged in preparing a "Daniels' battery"' when, 
shortly after noon, Mr. Lincoln entered the War Depart- 
ment office. Spying George, he accosted him with " Well, 
sonny, mixing the juices, eh ?" Then taking a seat in a 
large arm-chair, and adjusting his spectacles, he became 
aware that we were very busy. A smile broke over his 



18 A Glimpse of 

face as he saluted us with " Gentlemen, this is fast day, 
and 1 am pleased to observe that you are working as fast 
as you can ; the proclamation was mine, and that is my in- 
terpretation of its bearing upon you." Then, changing 
the subject, he said, "Now, we will hare a little talk with 
Governor Morton, at Indianapolis. I want to give him a 
lesson in geography. Bowling Green affair I set him all 
right upon ; now I will tell him something about Mul- 
draugh Hill. Morton is a good fellow, but at times he is 
the skeeredest man I know of." 

It was customary for Mr. Lincoln to make frequent calls 
at the war telegraph office, either for the purposes of di- 
rect telegraphic communication or to obtain what he called 
news. One day in September, 1861. accompanied by Mr. 
Seward, he dropped into the office with a pleasant "Good 
morning; what news?" Responding to the salutation, 1 
replied, "Good news, because none." Whereupon he re- 
joined, "Ah ! my young friend, that rule don't always hold 
good, for a fisherman don't consider it good luck when he 
can't get a bite." 

On another day, also accompanied by Secretary Seward, 
he came into the office. They seemed to have escaped from 
some one who had been boring them, and the President 
appeared to be greatly relieved as he sunk into an arm- 
chair, saying, " By Jings, Governor, we are here." Mr. 
Seward turned to him and, in a manner of semi-reproof 
said, " Mr. President, where did you learn that inelegant 



Abraham Lincoln. 19 

expression?" Without replying, Mr. Lincoln turned to 
us and said, "Young gentlemen, excuse me for swearing 
before you ; by jings is swearing, for my good old mother 
taught me that anything that had a by before it is swear- 
ing. I won't do so any more." 

Mr. Lincoln was entirely free from political intolerance, 
although at times he was compelled to permit its exercise 
by others. I experienced an application of his broad 
views. A few days prior to the Pennsylvania election, in 
October, 1861, I went to the White House and reported to 
the President that I was going over to Pennsylvania for a 
few days, and that I would leave the war telegraph ofhce 
in charge of Mr. Homer Bates, who would keep him as 
thoroughly advised of passing events as I had been doing. 
With his peculiarly humorous smile breaking over his face, 
he said, "All right, my young friend, but before you go 
tell me if you ain't going over to Pennsylvania to vote?" 
I replied affirmatively, adding that it would be my first 
vote in my native State. Upon his questioning me still 
further, I told him I was a Democrat in politics, and ex- 
pected to vote for the ticket of that party. Then, with 
the remark " Oh, that's all right ! Only be sure you vote 
for the riglit kind of Democrats," he bade me good bye. 

On the 27th of August, 1861, our pickets beyond Ball's 
Cross Koads had been driven in and an attack upon our 
lines was anticipated, the enemy being reported as advanc- 
ing in force along the railroad. General McClellan was on 



20 A Olimpse of Abraham Lincoln. 

the Virginia side giving his personal attention to his com- 
mand. About nine o'clock in the evening Mr. Lincoln, 
in company with two other gentlemen, came into the office 
to be "posted." I told the President that General Mc- 
Clellan was on his way from Arlington to Fort Cochrane, 
that our pickets still held Ball's and Bailey's Cross Roads 
and that no firing had been heard since sunset. The Presi- 
dent then inquired if any firing had been heard before sun- 
set, and upon my replying thej'e had been none reported, 
laughingly said, " That puts me in mind of a party who 
in speaking of a freak of nature, described it as a child 
who was black from the hips down, and, upon being asked 
the color from the hips up, replied blacky as a matter of 
course. 

I could go on indefinite!}' relating such anecdotes, but I 
refrain, and will conclude by saying : 

Abraham Lincoln will live in the correct history of his 
times as one who was unflinching in his devotion to duty, 
unswerving in his fidelity to a great cause, one whose every 
breath poured forth the purest sentiments of patriotism ; 
and as one who tried to live a manly life within the bounds 
of his comprehension of manhood's aims and duties^^^, 

William B. \Tilson. 

Holmesburg, PhiladelpMa. '-"-- 



X. 



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